The invention relates generally to ground adapters for electrical cables, especially those used aboard marine vessels and platforms. In particular, the invention relates to embodiments for low-impedance designs of a cable shield ground adapter (CSGA).
The United States Navy currently employs two technologies to provide electromagnetic (EM) protection from coupling to topside (i.e., above-deck) cables; conduit which provides an overall EM shield to cables placed within the conduit, and shielded cables with CSGAs used as termination connectors. Both technologies are viable but components used are expensive and difficult to maintain. The proposed CSGA embodiments deal almost exclusively with shielded cables and conduits. These are not explicitly described herein with respect to further applications, although the technology could be applied to the conduit shell whether flexible or rigid.
Conventional CSGA designs have been proven to be effective at grounding cable shielding when properly installed, achieving grounding effectiveness measures that exceed 80 decibels (dB), but are not easily repaired. The conventional designs are designed for use with swage tubes, also known as stuffing tubes. Specification requirements for the swage tube are provided in MIL-S-21239. Commonly utilized CSGA designs include Glenair® CSGA from Glenair Inc. of Glendale, Calif. and SkinTop® available from LAPP Group Inc. of Florham Park, N.J. The background section of parent application publication 2013/0090004 includes further details about the conventional configurations.